Interlocking device of doors

ABSTRACT

An apparatus for contemporaneously opening a pair of doors, a first door in a movable frame and a second door in a stationary frame, when the first door is positioned directly behind the second door, and for preventing movement of the movable frame when the doors are in the open position. The apparatus is essentially, an electromagnet attached to the first door and a movable plate attached to the second door which is attracted to the electromagnet when it is engaged, thereby connecting the doors so that the movement of the first door and the second door will be simultaneous. The apparatus also has a control device for controlling the movement of the frame of the first door in response to the movement of the plate on the second door toward the electromagnet.

0 United States Patent 191 [111 3,913,270 Kuma ai Oct. 21 1975 [54] [NTERLOCKING DEVICE ()F DOORS 3,638,762 2/1972 Johns 49/360 X [75] Inventor: Gentaro Kumagal, Osaka, Japan Primary Examiner j Karl Be [73] Assignee: Gentaro Kumagai, Osaka, Japan Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Wenderoth, Lind & Ponack 22 Pl d: Jul 23, 1973 i 1 y 57 ABSTRACT [2]] Appl' 381560 An apparatus for contemporaneously opening a pair of doors, a first door in a movable frame and a second [30] Foreign Appli tion P io it D t door in a stationary frame, when the first door is posi- July 25 [972 Japan U 474776183 tioned directly behind the second door, and for preventing movement of the movable frame when the [52] us CL 49/360. 49/73. 187/52 LC doors are in the open position. The apparatus is essen- [51 Int. cl. i 0. EOSF 17/00 ally, electromagne attached first and [58] Field of Search 49/360 73 H6 1 18 a movable plate attached to the second door which is b attracted to the electromagnet when it is engaged, thereby connecting the doors so that the movement of [56] References Cited the first door and the second door will be simultaneous. The apparatus also has a control device for UNITED STATES PATENTS controlling the movement of the frame of the first l232'903 7/197' l87/52 LC X door in response to the movement of the plate on the was; 2:22,: filiiictafiiw "1111: 1221:: k 2,996,152 8/l96l Olexson et al. 187/52 1 Claim, 2 Drawing Figures U.S. Patent 00!.21, 1975 Sheet 1 of2 3,913,270

FIG.1

FIG.2

U.S. Patent 00:. 21, 1975 Sheet 2 of2 3,913,270

1 INTERLOCKING DEVICE OF DOORS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a device for correlating the action of corresponding doors by connecting them to each other, and more particularly to an interlocking device of doors of a hoisting machine, such as an elevator and the like, enabling to synchronization of the opening and closing of the door provided on the cage and the door provided on the building when said doors are in a predetermined coinciding locational relation.

For the interlocking device for correlating the corresponding doors of an elevator and its building, various mechanisms have heretofore been introduced. I-Iow ever, most of the conventional mechanisms were for opening and closing said doors by means of separate independent driving sources, resulting in complicated construction of the entire device and entailing high assembly cost.

Generally, the opening and closing direction of the doors of a hoisting machine should be determined before installation, for example, a vertical or transverse direction, according to the use of said hoisting machine. However, the conventional device was under a limitation as to the location of its use, and therefore, each different type of device had to be chosen accord ing to the movement of the doors, thus resulting in a limited scope of use for the device itself. The conventional device had a further disadvantage in that precision to some extent was required in installation of the device since positional aberration during the operation resulted in a breakdown.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A first object of this invention is to provide a device in which two doors are interlocked by means of an electromagnet and a member magnetically attractable by said electromaget, thereby allowing opening and closing of said doors with reliability by making use of a single driving source, and also the conventional disadvantage of the limitation of the position of use.

A second object of this invention is to provide a safety locking device in which, when the interlocking of both doors is released, a locking device on one of the doors is activated, thereby preventing said door from opening.

These and other objects are accomplished by the parts, improvements, combinations and arrangements comprising this invention, a preferred embodiment of which is shown by way of example in the annexed drawings and herein described in detail.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a longitudinal, sectional view showing a preferred embodiment of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view, on a magnified scale, showing the principal part of the foregoing;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of said principal part; and

FIG. 4 is an elevational view showing a driving mechanism on one of the doors of the foregoing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 4, the numeral ll designates a cage of a hoisting machine, such as an elevator and the like, said cage 11 being elevatably suspended in a passage 13 comprising a cylindrical space formed in a construction 12 by a suitable guide and hoisting device so as to be stoppable at each floor.

A rail 15 is transversely mounted on the upper part on the side of an opening 14 of the cage 11. A plurality of wheels 16 are provided on the rail 15 so as to longitudinally sandwich said rail 15 thereinbetween, and a mobile frame 17 is provided so as to be movable along the rail 15. A door 18 for opening and closing the opening 14 of the cage 11 is fixed to the lower part of the mobile frame 17.

Above the rail 15 of the cage 11, an endless chain 19 is extended between a pair of spaced sprockets provided with the mobile frame 17 secured to one part of the endless chain 19 by means of an arm 20. The chain 19 is driven by a motor 21 geared with said chain 19 through one of the sprockets and a reduction mechanism; and the opening 14 is opened and closed by moving the door 18 by means of said motor 21 through the chain 19 and the mobile frame 17.

A rail 23 is also transversely mounted on the upper part of an entrance 22 facing the passage 13 on each floor of the construction 12. A plurality of wheels 24 are provided on the rail 23 so as to longitudinally sandwich said rail 23 thereinbetween, and a mobile frame 25 is provided so as to be movable along the rail 23. A door 26 for opening and closing the entrance 22 is secured to the lower part of the mobile frame 25.

The door 26 of the entrance 22 corresponds, with a suitable intervening space, with the door 18 of the cage 11 stopped at a predetermined position so that the opening 14 thereof coincides with said entrance 22. Both doors 18, 26 are adapted to open and close in the identical direction, and both mobile frames 17, 25 are adapted to correspond with each other at an identical level.

A pair of vertical guide shafts 27 are spaced in parallel in the center of the mobile frame 17 mounted on the cage 11 and on the side confronting the mobile frame 25 of the entrance 22.

The guide shafts 27 are fixed at both ends thereof by metal angles 28 secured to the mobile frame 17, and an electromagnet 30 is mounted between the pair of guide shafts 27 so as to be vertically movable on said guide shafts 27 by means of externally fitting of a pair of projecting pieces 29 erected on each side of said electromagnet 30 into said guide shafts 27 respectively.

A spring 32 is externally fitted to each guide shaft 27 between a spring seat 31 secured to the intermediate part of said shaft 27 and the projecting piece 29 at the upper part of the shaft 27, whereby the electromagnet 30 is resiliently supported between the guide shafts 27. On the mobile frame 25 above the entrance 22 of each floor, a pair of pivoting metals 33 are vertically secured to the central part of the side confronting the mobile frame 17 of the cage 11, and a pair of rocker arms 34 vertically spaced in parallel are mounted at each base end thereof on said pair of pivoting metals 33 by means of axes 35 so as to be vertically oscillatable.

Between both ends of the rocker arms 34,34 is mounted a magnetically adherent member 36, such as an iron plate and the like, which is attractable by the electromagnet 30 when energized.

The magnetically adherent member 36 which is vertically elongated has a width slightly larger than that of the electromagnet 30. A pair of bent pieces 37 engageable with the electromagnet 30 are formed continuously from both edges of the side confronting the mobile frame 17 of the cage 11, and a pair of hinges 38 fixed to the upper and lower parts of the other side of said magnetically adherent member 36 are pivotally connected to the front ends of the rocker arms respec tively by means of axes 39, whereby the magnetically adherent member 36 is pivotable constantly in a vertical state centering on the axes 35 by the parallel movement of the upper and lower rocker arms 34.

it is to be understood that the rocker arms 34 are to have a length sufficient to permit the magnetically adherent member 36 located on the side of the mobile frame to adhere to the electromagnet when energized. said electromagnet and magnetically adherent member 36 being spaced within the effective scope of energization.

In the center of the other side of the magnetically adherent member 36 confronting the mobile frame 25 is erected a locking shaft 40 horizontally projecting in the direction to said mobile frame 25. A penetrable hole 41 permitting the locking shaft 40 to withdrawably penetrate therethrough being provided in the center of the mobile frame 25, and a hole 42 with which the front end of the locking shaft 40 projected through the penetrable hole 41 is engageable is provided on the rail 23 in a position corresponding with said penetrable hole 41 in the state in which the entrance 22 is closed by the door 26.

The locking shaft 40 has such a length that said shaft 40 may be withdrawn from the hole 42 and the penetrable hole 41 when the magnetically adherent member 36 is attracted by the electromagnet 30, thereby enabling the door 26 to open and close freely, said locking shaft 40 locking the door 26 by engaging with the hole 42 when the magnetically adherent member 36 is detached by its own weight from the electromagnet 30 and pivoted to the side of the mobile frame 25 upon the disenergization of said electromagnet 30.

A switch device 43 is provided on the electromagnet 30 for controlling the circuit thereto by actuating when the cage 11 stops at a predetermined position on a required floor. A lock confirmation switch 44 is provided above the entrance 22 of each floor, said switch 44 being actuated when its operating piece is pressed by the front end of the locking shaft 40 engaged with the hole 42, whereby the hoisting device of the cage 11 is controlled so as not to operate except when the door 26 is locked.

The hoisting machine equipped with the interlocking device of this invention is applicable not only to an elevator as shown in the drawings but also to a dumbwaiter or the like. The doors 18, 26 shown in the drawings are of a single door system openable transversely. However, the device of this invention is applicable to many other types comprising duplex of triplex sliding doors, a pair of doors openable to both sides, a pair of doors vertically openable, and the like.

Furthermore, the locking device of the above embodiment comprises a simple mechanism of insertion and withdrawal of the locking shaft 40. However, a linking mechanism may be mounted on the side of the door 26 changing the reciprocation of the magnetically adherent member 36 into a vertical or horizontal movement, with the end of said mechanism which appears and disappears from the periphery of the door 26 being adapted to engage with a part of the construction.

The function functioning of the foregoing embodiment is as follows: when the cage 11 stops at a prede termined position in the part of the entrance 22 of a required floor, the mobile frame 17 of the cage 11 corresponds with the mobile frame 25 of the entrance 22, the electromagnet 30 being fed by the action of the switch device 43 in this state.

The energized electromagnet attracts the magnetically adherent member 36 which had previously been lowered by its own weight thereby locking the door 26 with the locking shaft 40 engaged with the hole 42 of the rail 23 as shown by the broken lines in FIG. 2, and the magnetically adherent member 36 is upwardly pivoted in its vertical state by the rocker arms 34 until said member 36 adheres to the electromagnet 30, thereby connecting both doors 18, 26 as shown by the solid lines in FIG. 2.

With the adhesion of the magnetically adherent member 36 to the electromagnet 30, the locking shaft 40 is withdrawn from the hole 42 and the penetrable hole 41, whereby the door 26 is released from the locking state.

The motor 21 is fed in the foregoing state thereby releasing the door 18 of the cage 11 through the chain 19 and the mobile frame 17, and the door 26 of the entrance 22 is also released in synchronous interlocking through the mobile frame 25 with the door 18 of the cage 11 as a result of the attraction of the electromagnet 30 and engagement between the bent pieces 37 with said electromagnet 30.

The closing of both said doors 18, 26 is effected in the aforementioned interlocking state by reversing the motor 21. Feeding to the electromagnet is then cut off when both of said doors 18, 26 are completely closed.

The magnetically adherent member 36 is released by tie-energizing the electromagnet 30, and said the adherent member 36 detaches under its own weight from said electromagnet 30. The locking shaft 40 then engages with the hole 42 thereby locking the door 26, with the result that the cage 11 is in an elevatable state.

What is claimed is:

1. An interlock apparatus for contemporaneously opening a first door in a movable frame and a second door in a stationary frame when the movable frame is positioned directly behind the stationary frame, and for controlling movement of the movable frame, said apparatus comprising:

a first opening means attached to said first door for opening said first door;

electromagnet means attached to said first opening means for being energized when said first door is in position to be opened;

guide means adjacent said second door for guiding the opening of said second door, said guide means having a first hole therethrough;

mounting means attached to said second door for connecting said second door to said guide means, said mounting means having a second hold therein adapted to align with the first hole in said guide means when said second door is closed; attraction means pivotally attached to said mounting means opposite said electromagnet means for pivoting toward said electromagnet means when said electromagnet means is energized and for pivoting against said mounting means under its own weight when said electromagnet means is not energized; a locking shaft slidably fitted through said two holes and attached to said attraction means for movement therewith, whereby energizing said electromagnet means will attract said attraction means on the opposite side of said first hole from said second hole engageable with said locking shaft when said shaft penetrates said second hole for controlling the movement of said movable frame, whereby said movable frame is movable only when said lock confirmation means is engaged by said lock shaft. 

1. An interlock apparatus for contemporaneously opening a first door in a movable frame and a second door in a stationary frame when the movable frame is positioned directly behind the stationary frame, and for controlling movement of the movable frame, said apparatus comprising: a first opening means attached to said first door for opening said first door; electromagnet means attached to said first opening means for being energized when said first door is in position to be opened; guide means adjacent said second door for guiding the opening of said second door, said guide means having a first hole therethrough; mounting means attached to said second door for connecting said second door to said guide means, said mounting means having a second hold therein adapted to align with the first hole in said guide means when said second door is closed; attraction means pivotally attached to said mounting means opposite said electromagnet means for pivoting toward said electromagnet means when said electromagnet means is energized and for pivoting against said mounting means under its own weight when said electromagnet means is not energized; a locking shaft slidably fitted through said two holes and attached to said attraction means for movement therewith, whereby energizing said electromagnet means will attract said attraction means thereto, causing said locking shaft attached to said attracting means to withdraw from said holes; and whereby de-energizing the electromagnet means will cause the attraction means to pivot away from the electromagnet under its own weight toward the mounting means forcing the locking shaft through said two holes; and lock confirmation means aligned with said two holes on the opposite side of said first hole from said second hole engageable with said locking shaft when said shaft penetrates said second hole for controlling the movement of said movable frame, whereby said movable frame is movable only when said lock confirmation means is engaged by said lock shaft. 